This is a good news article.
Opium farming in Afghanistan has declined by 22 per cent this year as prices for the drug tumbled, causing farmers to switch to other crops, the UN has said.........The West, which has made wiping out the crop part of its eight-year battle against the Taliban in the country, is likely to welcome the findings.
But the decline, the second in the last two years, seems to be a result of simple economics, rather than law enforcement efforts.
overall it's quite a drop still.
Check it out, though.
the article goes on to state that some of the opium is in stashes at the moment and " that massive stockpiles of the drug could fund instability for years to come".....Opium now makes up just four per cent of Afghan GDP, compared to 7 per cent in 2008 and a record 27 per cent in 2002, a year after the Taliban were ousted..
Here's the link:
It's a moderate read. Not too long.
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